BROCKTON, Mass. ---- The Massasoit CC men's soccer team trailed by three goals, but rallied to make things interested before eventually falling to Dean College, 3-2, at Warrior Field on Wednesday afternoon.
The loss drops the Warriors to 2-3 overall and 1-1 in league play. Dean College improves to 4-0 on the season and 1-0 against divisional competition.
In the first 10 minutes of action, the Warriors produced several scoring chances, firing off six shots, five coming on net. But, Dean keeper Karim Mokhtar made some big stops in the win for the Bulldogs.
After not converting on three separate breakaways, Massasoit made a miscue on its own defensive halve. The Warrior keeper attempted to punt the ball out, but the kick deflected off a Warrior defender's back, going to Dean's Stanley Alves. The Bulldog forward made a quick move and buried it to give Dean a 1-0 lead in the 28th minute.
"That really hurt us not capitalizing on those scoring chances," Massasoit head coach Rui Estrela said. "You go to a game, I don't care who you play, and you don't score goals when you have easy chances, things are going to somehow backfire on you. We then made a mistake and they came back and scored on us and (Dean is) up 1-0 and now we have the pressure on us, instead of being up 2-0 or 3-0 and playing in control."
Despite outshooting Dean 11-5 in the first period, the Bulldogs held the 1-0 edge on the scoreboard at intermission.
In the second half, the Bulldogs netted a goal in the 50th minute, when Samuel Fonseca served a pass to Justin Freitas inside the box to put Dean up, 2-0.
Exactly five minutes later, Dean would strike again. Off a save by Massasoit keeper Wilson Fernandes (Cape Verde/Shea HS), Geo Alves connected on the rebound to give the visiting Bulldogs a commanding 3-0 cushion in the 57th minute of play.
However, Massasoit would not go quietly. Andrew Revanales (Trinidad/Sharon HS) rifled a shot off a Dean defender into the back of the net in the 65th minute. It marked the team-best sixth goal of the season for the sophomore striker.
During scrum inside the Dean Box in the 77th minute, freshman Fabio Gomes (Pawtucket, R.I./Shea HS) connected for his first collegiate goal to pull the Warriors within one.
In the 90th minute, Massasoit had one more scoring chance, but a shot by Elvis Andrade (Brockton/Penn Foster HS) sailed high as the Bulldogs escaped with a 3-2 win.
"I liked the character of the team today," Estrela said. "They came out and continued to play hard and fought back. Again, we created even more chances in the second half. I honestly felt like there was some kind of spell over us from scoring goals. Nothing fell right for us when the scoring chances were there.
"I'm not disappointed in the way the boys played, but I am disappointed in the outcome. As far as going out and playing hard, I thought we played the better game. But that doesn't matter; at the end of the day you have to win the game."
Massasoit finished with 22 total shots, nine coming on net.
The Warriors return to the pitch, with a road contest at Monroe College (Bronx, N.Y.) on Saturday at 7 p.m.